[Vwdiesel] road trip story, somewhat long.

[Mary Beth and Chris Geiser]

I think Loren posted a while back that the hot wire to the stop solenoid was
unfused... at that time I spliced in a fuse in the first spot that I could
get to the wire in my vehicles. Good advice for anyone who hasn't done it
yet.

I got stuck a few weeks ago with a broken stop solenoid wire and no good way
to hold it on - I did find an adjustable wrench in the minimalistic tool kit
at my work, so I pulled the plunger out of the solenoid until I got home...
I haven't heard anyone at work complain about diesel smelling tools yet!!

Chris



-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
Behalf Of Shalyn Shourds
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 12:08 AM
To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
Subject: [Vwdiesel] road trip story, somewhat long. 

    I had a tournament in Austin this weekend, about 200 miles south, so 
I hopped in the '85 TD and went down with no problems.  About halfway 
back on this cold, dark, and rainy night, though, I had a sudden engine 
death somewhere just outside of nowhere.  All warning lights, no engine 
noise, and a few lights on the distant horizon.  I got off to the side 
of the road and popped the hood.  I spent about 10 minutes before 
realizing that I was a few parts shy of a compleat flashlight.  I gave 
up and started checking by feel.  I had an inkling of what had happened, 
and, sure enough, fumbling around in the dark hood area proved that the 
wire to the stop selenoid had broken.   A brief moment of light using a 
pair of jumper cables and a spare turn signal bulb confirmed the 
problem.  Not normally a show-stopper, but my crimp-on connector set was 
laying at the house, about 90 miles away--in the same room as my good 
flashlight.  I found a used connector, pried it open, stripped the 
selenoid wire, and tried to crimp it on.  No dice, so I cast the wire 
off to the side.  I did have another piece of wire with a spade 
connector already on it, and long enouigh to run to the battery.  I got 
it on, hoppped in, and sure enough, it started.  I did a silly end-zone 
dance and marveled at my good fortune. 
    About that time, I saw the clouds of smoke coming from the engine 
and the dashboard.  For some reason, you always have brilliant flashes 
of insight that allow you to figure out what just happened instead of 
brilliant flashes of insight that pre-empt the problem.  I knew in an 
instant that the stripped end of the stop selenoid wire was now hot and 
laying against the engine.  Sure enough, I pulled the battery cable and 
the only light remaining was 3" of glowing wire. 
    At this point, it seemed prudent to seek some help, or at least a 
flashlight.  Maybe I need to work on my legs or something, but despite 
flagging wildly, I just couldn't get anyone to stop.  I gave up and 
wished there was a tree within 30 miles big enough to hang everyone that 
passed by.  So much for the "Friendly State".  I sulked inside as the 
rain worsened.  Finally, in a slow point in the rain, I figured I didn't 
have much to lose.  I clipped the burned wire off short, re-connected 
the hot wire to the battery, and started the car.  It started, I didn't 
see any smoke, and I pulled onto the highway.  In the glare of a gas 
station 10 miles away, I couldn't see any reason why a major 
conflagration would begin, so I headed for home.  The car's sitting out 
in the driveway now, battery cable dangling. 
    Now, I just have to pull apart the main wiring harness, replace the 
burned lead (you can see a melted trace through the whole thing straight 
to the appropriately-named firewall) and stick it back together.   In a 
lot of ways, I'm really lucky: that I wasn't in a bad place when it 
died; that no one ploughed into me on the side of the road; that I got 
it fixed, twice; that the car didn't burn to the ground; that I wasn't 
doing this repair in the -30ºF that Mike has to deal with; that years of 
reading this list gave me the knowledge to fix the problem; and that I 
actually made it home.  It's hard to keep all the good points in mind, 
though. 

Whatever the case, at this point, I'm going to bed. 

-Shalyn


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